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Australian authorities said on Friday that they have abandoned the previous search area in the southern Indian Ocean for wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, in favor of a new site more than 1,000 km north.

The international team of aircraft and boats would now comb approximately 319,000 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean located around 1,850 kilometers west of Perth, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said, after new information was received from the Malaysian team investigating the incident.

"We have moved on from those search areas to the newest credible lead," John Young, general manager of the emergency response division of AMSA, told reporters in Canberra.

"The new information is based on continuing analysis of radar data between the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca before radar contact was lost," a statement by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.

The latest data seemed to show that the plane was travelling faster, and therefore may have run out of fuel earlier than previously estimated, it added.

Young said the revised data could be revised still further as analysis continued.

The Boeing 777 disappeared from radar screens around an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing on March 8.